Last Week’s New Yorker, week of August 12

"Cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat."

Apologies for the slight delay, dear readers; I’ve been ramping up my job search efforts. My lines have some nibbles, but any leads are still appreciated!

After two notably substandard issues in a row, I suppose the law of averages demands an issue with basically no skips. Well, this one delivers! It’s not so much that any one piece was a massive standout and more that everything is quite good; picking the must-reads (I always set a hard cap at two¹, because if I’m not making the hard choices what’s even the point of this endeavor?) has never felt more arbitrary. But off we trot.